in the Rue St. Honore, with all its contents, in furniture, gold,
silver, and jewels, is valued at eighty thousand francs. I stake it! Do
you accept?'

"'Yes,' said the Chevalier calmly, without looking at him, and began to
deal.

"'Queen!' said the old man, and the queen lost. The old man fell back,
and leaned against the wall, motionless as a stone image. Nobody
troubled himself further about him. When the game was over for the
night, and the Chevalier and his croupiers were packing away the won
money in the strong box, Vertua came wavering like a spectre forward
out of his corner. In a hollow, faint voice, he said, 'One word,
Chevalier; one single word.'

"'Well, what is it?' said the Chevalier, taking the key from the box
and putting it in his pocket, as he surveyed the old man contemptuously
from head to foot.

"'I have lost all I possessed in the world to your banque, Chevalier.
I have nothing left--nothing. I don't know where I shall lay my head
to-morrow, or how I shall appease my hunger. I betake myself to you.
Lend me the tenth part of the sum you have won from me, that I may
recommence my business, and raise myself from the depths of poverty.'

"'How can you be so absurd, Signor Vertua,' said the Chevalier. 'Don't
you know that a banquier never lends his winnings? It would be against
all the rules, and I abide by them.'

"'You are right, Chevalier,' said Vertua. 'What I asked was absurd,
extravagant. Not a tenth part--lend me a twentieth part.'

"'What I tell you is,' said the Chevalier, 'that I never lend any of my
winnings.'

"'Quite right,' said Vertua, his face growing paler and paler, and his
looks more fixed and staring. 'Of course you can't lend. I never used
to do it myself. But give an alms to a beggar. Let him have one hundred
louis d'or out of the fortune which blind Chance threw to you tonight.'

"'Well, really, Signor Vertua, you understand how to bother,' was the
Chevalier's answer. 'I tell you that not one hundred, nor fifty, nor
twenty, nor one single louis d'or will you get out of me. I should be a
lunatic to give you any help towards recommencing your shameful trade.
Fate has dashed you down into the dust like a venomous reptile, and it
would be a crime to lift you up. Be off with you, and die, as you
deserve to do.'

"Vertua sank down, with both his hands before his face. The Chevalier
ordered his servants to take the Strong box down to the carriage, and
then cried out, in a